1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device storage apparatus for a railway vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, in a railcar, various devices such as a controller and electric devices are mounted into a storage apparatus and arranged under a floor of a railcar or inside the railcar. During inspection or maintenance, a cover of the storage apparatus is opened, states of the devices in the storage apparatus are checked, and then maintenance of them is carried out if necessary. For example, batteries which are one example of the devices, are mounted to the railcar as a backup electric power supply in the case of electric power failure. To this end, it is necessary to charge the batteries all the time to ensure a situation where the batteries can be used in the case of electric power failure. Therefore, a maintenance operation for checking whether or not an amount and state of battery electrolytes are normal is carried out on a regular basis. Normally, the batteries are mounted under a floor of the railcar. During the maintenance, the batteries are pulled out together with a tray from a storage case.
The railcar tends to shake during driving. Therefore, it is necessary to keep the batteries in a fixed storage position inside the storage case. To this end, in a battery storage apparatus of a conventional example (e.g., see Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Application Publication No. 60-150772), a catcher is provided in a storage case and connected to an operation knob provided above an opening of the storage case via a wire cable, and a latch pin engageable with a engagement protrusion of the catcher is provided at a tray. In accordance with this, the engagement protrusion is locked with the latch pin when the tray is in a storage position to allow the tray to be fixed in the storage position. By pulling the operation knob, the engagement protrusion is unlocked with the latch pin and the tray is pulled out.
To pull out the tray, however, it is necessary to move the tray while operating the operation knob with one hand and holding the tray with the other hand. Such an operation needs a skill because it is performed in a narrow space in a low position at underfloor of the railcar. In addition, the operation for moving the tray with a substantial weight with one hand is unstable. In addition, a lock structure of the tray is such that a pull-operation of the operation knob is transmitted to the catcher via the wire cable to unlock the engagement protrusion of the catcher with respect to the latch pin. Such a lock structure is complex.